Optical navigation systems operate to estimate movements between the optical navigation systems and navigation surfaces to perform tracking operations. An optical navigation system uses a light source, such as a light-emitting diode (LED) or a laser diode, to illuminate a region of a navigation surface and an image sensor array to receive the light reflected from the navigation surface to successively capture frames of image data of the navigation surface. The optical navigation system compares the successive image frames and estimates the relative movements between the optical navigation system and the navigation surface based on the comparisons between the successive image frames. The comparisons are based on detecting and computing displacements of features in the captured frames of image data, which involve performing cross-correlations on the frames of image data.
Optical navigation systems are commonly used in optical computer mice to track the movements of the mice relative to the navigation surfaces on which the mice are manually manipulated. The movements of a computer mouse are used to control a cursor on a monitor of a computer system.
Performance of a computer mouse over time can degrade due to various factors during the life of the computer mouse. As an example, contamination on optics and other components of a computer mouse can produce fixed pattern noise in captured image frames, which may adversely affect cross-correlation results. As another example, the illumination provided by the light source of a computer mouse may deteriorate over time, which can degrade the quality of image frames that are captured for cross-correlation.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method for performing calibrations on an optical navigation device, such as an optical computer mouse, to correct performance-degrading changes.